Jose Altuve is the best Astro ever

Altuve baseball cards are up 47% since last month. Interesting trend. Normally the black sheep cards don't rebound this fast. His bottomed out and then bounced back. The regular Topps rookie, psa 10, is now at $150. By comparison, the Correa Topps PSA 10 rookie is only going for $80. Bregman is $50. Alvarez $15. Verlander is going for $450. Bagwell $255. Biggio $200. Jose Cruz $30.

 

Also, since we're talking about the greatest Astros of all time, let's talk about how the Astros had the greatest switch hitter since Mickey F'n Mantle and he's almost completely forgotten. He got almost no love whatsoever when he briefly appeared on a HOF ballot.

Lance Berkman is by far the most underrated Astro ever.

 

We just don't really have as many (if any) golden postseason moments from Bagwell, but you're right from a numbers perspective

 

Lance Berkman was a very very gifted hitter....... his effort sucked though

 

I grew up watching all of Bagwell's career, and I agree he is in the conversation because of his amazing numbers. Imagine if Bagwell wasn't playing with a hurt shoulder for so long at the end of his career. Unfortunately for him though, playoff performance matters, and it matters a lot. What Altuve has done in the playoffs is more impressive to me making him the greatest Astro ever.

Edit: And 100% in agreement on Berkman. That guy is criminally underrated nationally and in Houston.

 

Correa also was playing hurt those seasons.... I remember one of those years he had no business even playing, his back was terrible.

When he has been healthy, he has played very well in the post season.... and even with the bad back in 2018, he was only mediocre that post season. He was bad overall in 2019..... he still has a career post season OPS of nearly .900 in 300 at bats and he has hit for power.

Correa isn't perfect, and he has already missed nearly two seasons of games because of injury and COVID..... but he still has a career WAR not that far off of Altuve..... he likely will have over 50 career WAR by age 30.

 

He didn't have many opportunities at all based on being on fairly weak teams and the few chances he got he was stuck facing 3 HOF pitchers at the peak of their game.

He also didn't have the protection in the lineup that the current squad does.... it was the Biggio and Bagwell show for the most part.

 

The B's were awful come october, but they were both past their primes by '97, let alone '05. Biggio was 31 by the time he saw the postseason. Bagwell kept cranking out 3+ WAR seasons until 2005.

They were the quietest good team in league history prior to the current Brewers.

 

I'm pretty sure Chipper Jones, Pete Rose, Carlos Beltran & Eddie Murray would disagree.

Not to say Berkman wasn't as good if not better at the plate, but those guys would all have good arguments they were better players, and Chipper (no matter how much I hate him) was every bit the offensive player Berkman was, but did it for a lot longer period of time.

 

Berkman and Oswalt are the next two Astros that should have their numbers retired... if they still do that thing.

 

Interesting fact... Colby Rasmus has the top slugging percentage in the postseason of all time that meets Bref's minimum plate appearance requirements but...


Postseason Win Probability Added (WPA) (Career)
Rank. Player
1. David Ortiz 3.2 369 PA
2. Carlos Correa 2.9 300 PA
3. Albert Pujols 2.8 344 PA
4. Lance Berkman 2.7 224 PA
5. Pete Rose 2.6 301 PA
6. Jose Altuve 2.6 326 PA
7. Justin Turner 2.4 349 PA
8. George Springer 2.3 292 PA
9. Lou Gehrig 2.3 150 PA
10. Carlos Beltran 2.3 256 PA

Keeping in mind... more rounds in the playoffs from the 90s onwards

 

Rasmus only had 35PA. I had forgotten just how awesome he was that year. Damn our inability to get a K when we needed it.

 

Being a fan of Houston sports will teach you to be pessimistic. I didn't start out this way, but years of Bagwell/Biggio playoff failures, the Texans always being trash, and the Rockets coming up short (yao/t-mac then Harden) has taken its toll

 

Regular season numbers are nice and all but eventually you play for that playoff glory.

 

Altuve has hit key home runs this playoffs but is under .200 batting. Bags would get crucified with those stats. It was also alot easier to pitch around bagwell then it is with any other astro now. Let's not forget that he played in the dome and in the playoffs played the braves often

 

Tuve may go down as the Astros best 2nd baseman which is an notion that was unfathomable before he started playing.

 

They already said they weren’t going to… and thus they ‘honored’ them previously and they’re now in the Astros HOF.

Honestly, Altuve is the only one on track at the moment. Bregman could get there if he rebounds the final years of his contract and they win again. Correa could also get there if he re-signs and has another tremendous 3-4 prime healthy years.

 

Yep and if were as old as me 80,81 and 86 Astros were extremely painful along with the many Oilers short comings. These last 5 season for the Astros have been fun. The fact that we got one WS trophy (sign stealing set aside because baseball hasn't been fair ever.. see NYY LAD payroll and roids and other stealing signs and by the way Dodgers ACE golden boy had the back of his hat covered in pine tar, yeah that is illegal in the Fing WS) I take every post season win with joy and losses I roll with much easier now. That said I really want them to get back to the WS and beat the Braves or the Dodgers.

Side note....I am convinced all of San Diego was roid cheating verse that Randy Johnson led 'stros 102 win team.

 

Oh I get it, but lighten up man, all sports are cyclical: don't get too down and don't get too up.

Dear god, can you imagine when Houston NFL Football gets on the upstroke finally? It'll be nuts.

In my life I have seen Houston:

NBA Champs
World Series Champ
VY Longhorn Champ
NCAA Hoops...waiting
NFL...waiting

I'm gonna keep waiting as long as I can.

 

Don't you dare criticize Dork Elvis.